P. Susheela

As verified on 28 January 2016, Susheela has reportedly recorded up to 17,695 solo, duet and chorus backed songs in over six Indian languages since the 1960s, not counting some lost early recordings. She has now been recognized by both the Guinness Book of World Records and Asia Book of Records for singing most songs in Indian languages.

Susheela made a comeback by rendering her voice to her own song Raksha Raksha Jaganmatha which was released 72 years ago and was released as a single for the movie, Aadai, starring Amala Paul. The director, Rathna Kumar said, the track — a metal-version of a devotional song — has been titled Bhakti Metal. Susheela was happy that younger generation music directors are still approaching her to render her voice for them.

The P. Susheela Trust, formed in 2008, has a monthly pension payment scheme and a few musicians in need are being benefited through it. On every 13 November there would be a musical concert during which a senior artist(s) chosen by a panel is conferred with the Lifetime Achievement awards and the P Susheela Trust award. The proceedings of the concert would go towards the Trust maintenance.

With S. Janaki and Vani Jayaram taking over the Southern film songs center stage from 1985 and K. S. Chitra beginning her career, Susheela slowly shifted her focus from films to devotionals and light music. But she continued to get to sing melodious film songs from 1984 to 1999 though she had after 1985 cut down on offers for singing in films. She even won awards for songs in Telugu films – Viswanatha Nayakudu in 1987, Godavari Pongindi in 1989 and Tamil film Varam in 1989. She sang duets with Kishore Kumar in 1986 for the film Singhasan – "Chalta Hai Do Dilon Ka Kaise Sansaar" and "Tere Liye Maine Janam" which became popular. She also concentrated more on stage shows across the Globe where many associations worldwide invited her to perform for their organised shows. She recorded more than 1000 devotional songs for various audio companies. In 1988, acclaimed music composer Naushad insisted her to sing "Janaki Jaane" for his Malayalam film Dhwani. She also recorded few of her career best songs for Illayaraja, A. R. Rahman and others in the 1990s. "Kannukku Mai Azhagu" from the film Pudhiya Mugam (1993) composed by Rahman was praised all over for its lyrical content and rendition. She had hit songs in Tamil till 2005 and sang many devotional and folk songs from 1986 to 2005 and did many live shows from 1990 to 2005.

The 1970s also saw Susheela in her prime form winning almost all the awards both nationally and in all the four states of Southern India. She also recorded even Hindi songs during this period with music directors like KV Mahdevan, Laxmikant Pyarelal, L. Vaidyanathan and Laxmi Kiran, S.L. Manohar, Ajit merchant, G. Devarajan and S.N. Tripathi. It was in this era that she sang few notable songs for another prolific Indian music director Ilaiyaraja. Though Janaki took a leading position from 1980 with her strong association with M.S.V and Ilayaraja, Susheela continued to be at the top till 1985 and after 1985 was still opted by several music directors for her legendary vocals. After 1986, she became selective about film songs and continued to have hit film songs till 2005.

The song "Paal Polave" from Tamil film Uyarndha Manidhan brought her the first ever award at the 16th National Film Awards, by winning her the National Film Award for Best Female Playback Singer in 1969. Smt P.Susheela was the first recipient of this prestigious honour, which also made Uyarndha Manidhan, the first film to win a National Award under that category. She is fondly called "Gana Kokila" and "Gana Saraswathi". She is also considered as one of the rich voiced singers whose pronunciation of the syllables are to be very clear and precise in any of the languages she sang. In a career spanning more than six decades, she has recorded nearly 50,000 songs in various Indian languages including Telugu, Tamil, Kannada, Malayalam, Hindi, Bengali, Oriya, Sanskrit, Tulu and Badaga. She has also sung for Sinhalese films. Her mother tongue is Telugu. She can also speak Tamil fluently, with a little Hindi, Malayalam and Kannada.

The early 1960s saw Susheela grow as an undisputed lead female singer across all the south Indian language films putting all the older veteran singers to the background. The year 1960 saw Susheela entering the Malayalam films with the V. Dakshinamurthy compositions for the film Seetha. From then, she went on to record numerous hit songs with all the Malayalam composers like G. Devarajan, M. K. Arjunan among others. She recorded many Malayalam duets with the veteran singer K. J. Yesudas. Her association with M.S. Viswanathan continued even after M.S.V split up with Ramamoorthy in 1965 and under M.S.V her duets with T.M. Sounderrajan and others and her solo songs were too popular with audience and made her first choice singer for every other music composer and film producer from 1960 to 1985. M.S.V.'s composition fetched her the first National Film Award for Best Female Playback Singer in 1969 for her prolific rendition of "Naalai Intha Velai Paarthu" for the Tamil film Uyarndha Manidhan. The same song got her the Tamil Nadu State Award as well. Thereby, Susheela became one of the first recipients of the most dignified National awards in India. It was during these years the Nightingale of India, Lata Mangeshkar developed a strong friendship with Susheela and praised all her works frequently. Her work in Film Chandipriya is superb with song "Sri Bhagya Rekha - Janani Janani" with Jayaprada superb dance. M.S.Viswanathan is regarded as her mentor and in his music direction she has maximum popular hit songs from 1955 to 1995.

Thus began a huge legacy of Susheela, who sang in almost all the films produced since 1955 through 1960s and 1970s till 1985. The legendary Tamil musicians Viswanathan – Ramamurthy duo composed some of the most evergreen songs of Tamil cinema history in the voice of Susheela. Her duets with the acclaimed singers Ghantasala in Telugu, T. M. Soundararajan in Tamil and P. B. Srinivas in Kannada marked a new era of duet songs in the South Indian music industry. She, along with T. M. Soundararajan went on to record more than hundreds of songs with Viswanathan – Ramamurthy. Susheela's blockbuster Kannada song "Viraha novu nooru taraha" for the film Edakallu Guddada Mele is listed as one of the top 10 evergreen songs in Indian cinema. Her combination with actress Jayanthi is very popular in Karnataka.

P. Susheela went on to become the most successful playback singers of south India from 1950 to 1990.

Pulapaka Susheela (born 13 November 1935), popularly known as P. Susheela, is an Indian playback singer associated with the South Indian cinema primarily from Andhra Pradesh for over six decades. She has been recognized by the Guinness Book of World Records as well as by the Asia Book of Records for performing a record number of songs in different Indian languages. She is also the recipient of five National Film Award for Best Female Playback Singer and numerous state awards. Susheela is widely acclaimed as a singer who defined feminism in South Indian cinema and is well known for her mellifluous vocal performances for over 50,000 film songs across South Indian languages.